Celia Barquin Arozamena dead aged 22: Amateur European golf champion was stabbed in neck and found in water at golf course after players spotted her abandoned clubs as man charged with murder

TRIBUTES have poured in for European amateur golf champion Celia Barquin Arozamena after she was found dead at a US golf course, and a man was charged with murder.

Police confirmed that 22-year-old Spaniard Barquin Arozamena was found dead on Monday at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, Iowa, and officers determined she had died after being assaulted.

They said 22-year-old Collin Daniel Richards was charged with first-degree murder.

Arozamena was stabbed in the neck and torso, with her body was discovered in a body of water. Police added that Richards has no known address.

Cops were called to the golf course around 10.20am on Monday after golfers found a golf bag with no one around it.

Officers found a body "some distance" from the bag.

Barquin Arozamena, who qualified for the US Women's Open in Alabama this year, was the 2018 Big 12 - a university league - champion and Iowa State Female Athlete of the Year.

The university said the native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, was finishing her civil engineering degree this semester after exhausting her eligibility at Iowa State in 2017-2018.

And they hailed Barquin Arozamena as "one of the most accomplished players" in their history.

In April, she became the second women's golfer at Iowa State to earn medallist honours at a conference tournament when claiming the 2018 Big 12 Championship.

She won the prestigious European Ladies Amateur at the Penati Golf Resort in Slovakia in July.

Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen said she was "deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death" of Barquin Arozamena, describing her as a "dedicated civil engineering student" and an "acclaimed golfer with a bright future."

Head women's golf coach Christie Martens said Barquin Arozamena was "loved by all her team-mates and friends" and was an "outstanding representative of our school."